The China Daily is the English language edition for one of China’s state-run newspapers. If you look at the internet address, you will also see Xinhua (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/xinhua/), and Xinhua is the official press agency of the People’s Republic of China. Xinhua operates more than 170 foreign bureaus worldwide and maintains one for each province in China. Today, Xinhua News Agency delivers its news across the world in six languages: Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic.
The editorial office is in Beijing and there are branch offices in most major cities of China as well as several foreign capitals. For instance, one office was established in New York City in 2009. You may also access the paper on-line (click above link).
The paper is regarded in the West as the English-language mouthpiece for China’s central government.
However, don’t think of the China Daily as only a source of propaganda. It’s a serious newspaper, and the people on the staff are professionals who see that the content of the paper fits the collective culture of China.
Any censorship usually doesn’t come from the leadership of the central government but from the reporters and editors of the paper. In fact, there have been times when the paper has been called by the central government and asked to cover a topic considered too sensitive by the staff.
Since China is still changing at a rapid pace, any opinions you hold about China may be obsolete. The country, culture, and lifestyles of the people are changing as fast as the economy.
If you are interested in hearing from an insider who worked at the China Daily in 1997, I recommend reading Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana by Stephanie Elizondo Griest.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse 
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